A German schnauzer is about to grant a confused girl three wishes that lead to surprising results in Junkers Come Here.

Junkers Come Here.
Theatrical feature, 1995. Director: Junichi Sato. 105 minutes. Price & format: DVD bilingual $29.98. Distributor: Bandai Entertainment.

This charming award-winner and laureate of the Japanese Board of Education puts a fantasy gloss on a serious problem faced by many modern affluent youth. 11-year-old Hitomi Nozawa apparently has no worries. She has lots of school friends, and her workaholic parents provide her with a lovely home. Her mother is a busy executive for an international hotel chain who seldom gets home before midnight, while her father is a commercial photographer who is constantly on assignments around the world.

Hitomi knows that they love her, even if she sees less of them than of Fumie, their friendly though scatterbrained housekeeper, and Keisuke, a college student who is her live-in tutor (whom she has a crush on). Her best friend of all is Junkers, her pet German schnauzer, who can talk -- but only to her.

Then it starts to fall apart. Her parents, who have been drifting apart due to their separate jobs, decide to do "the sensible thing" and have a friendly divorce. Her mother has just been appointed manager of her chain's newest luxury hotel in San Francisco, and she will take Hitomi with her. They are sure that Hitomi, who is so logical and intelligent, will realize that this is best for her. Hitomi learns that she could not keep her Japanese home life even if she chooses to stay with her father, because the reliable Keisuke is about to graduate from college, marry his fiancee and leave to begin his own career; and Fumie is too unreliable to be a guardian by herself.

Then Junkers reveals that he can do more than talk; he can grant three wishes. Hitomi finds her intellect and rational logic is in conflict with her 11-year-old emotions. Is it fair to use magic to force her parents and Keisuke to adjust their lives to her convenience? -- especially when a tentative attempt to wish that Keisuke will not leave turns out to have unexpectedly unpleasant consequences.

Junkers Come Here, based on a young-adult novel by Naoto Kine (who composed the movie's music and provides the voice of the father), was animated by the Triangle Staff studio and released on March 18, 1995. Everything is developed in such a low key that it could be called pedestrian, although it is clear that this is deliberate. The art style is nicely realistic, painted in pastel watercolors. Kine's music is pleasantly adequate, but unmemorable. The dialogue is what you might expect from listening to an imaginative 11-year-old.

The emphasis is on the human-interest problem. What stands out are the warm relationship between Hitomi and Junkers (the dog has an engagingly quirky personality, including using a toilet in a human manner when nobody is looking), and the conflict between logic and emotion that even the most intelligent child would face in such a situation. In some respects Hitomi's intelligence makes her suffer even more. It gradually becomes clear that all her schoolmates are juvenile and shallow; Junkers is the only "person" she can relate to as an equal. (If it were not for a couple of gag situations such as a school crossing guard overhearing Junkers talking, the audience could wonder whether Hitomi's loneliness has caused her to imagine Junkers' human intelligence and speech.)

Hitomi is torn between pride that her parents respect her intelligence, and resentment that they do not really show any understanding of her own feelings; and between her realization that Keisuke and her parents have their own lives and goals, and any child's emotional reluctance to "leave the nest." Junkers Come Here is an excellent film for children who are about to experience the emotional trauma of growing up, whether their home lives are secure or not.